Hello and welcome to first of this summer’s weekly round-ups for my Summer Craft Challenge. I know I say it all the time, but I can’t believe where the time has gone and that we are at the start of week 2 already! Mind you, it has been quite a busy time for us as a family with a trip down to London for a couple of days for a very special celebration, but more on that later! Here’s what I’ve been up to this week…
I started Day 1 with a new amigurumi project – I couldn’t share it at the time as it was a special gift (which I will reveal at the end!). I used this brilliant pattern book by Carla Mitrani. It was a gift a few years ago from Eldest – and this time I used it to make a mini me of him (not that he’s an iconic woman, but he is pretty iconic in my book).
Day 2 featured my first lot of train crochet of the summer – I’m not sure how much of that there will be this year, but we’ll see what the weeks ahead bring. I was continuing work on that project from Day 1 whilst on the train down to London.
Now to the reason behind the trip and a clue to what I was making – last week, my Eldest graduated from university and the family made the trip down south to London to see him receive his degree. It was such a proud moment for me. I am still on a high from it all. I’m thrilled to bits for him and his future.
Now for the big reveal… here’s Eldest’s Mini Me!
He’s been created based off the pattern for Greta Thunberg (in case you were wondering!)
Back home from our trip to London and feeling a little tired, I reached for a project which hasn’t seen the light of day since last year’s Craft Challenge! This embroidery kit is from Clare Albans at Hello Hooray Blog. I loved its cheerful colours when I saw it and knew I had to have one for my house – not sure how long it will take me to complete though…. It was nice to get back into some calm, slow stitching!
It might not look like much progress but over the past 48 hours, I managed 9 different sections of colour on this!
Sticking with the golden oldies of my WIP pile – I revisited this unloved and abandoned sock, which was started back in the spring of 2025! Onwards…
It was a bit of a false start yesterday – I began the heel flap and was knitting quite tightly in the tension stakes, this wool has quite a bit of fluff to it which knitted together in knots and stopped me from being able to see where my stitches were on this slip stitch heel flap. Disaster! I lost so many stitches that I had to unravel. I put it in the naughty corner.
And finally one of the joys for me of the Summer Craft Challenge as well as being creative myself, it brings other people to the part too. My thanks to everyone who has joined in on Instagram this week and shared their own moments of creativity including @amandaswoolnwalks @crochet_at_holme @jothiquestscraft @sarahsheehangib and @wonders_of_wool!
It has been great to have company on this challenge so far – if you fancy joining in, please do! There’s no pressure to post everyday, but if you have a moment of summer creativity in the next few weeks, please just take a photo of what you’ve been up to and share it on Instagram with the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2026 so we can all see who is in the Summer Craft Challenge community this year.
Thanks so much for stopping by, see you next week!
☀️ Today is the first day of the school summer holidays chez Making Stitches and while it’s a normal work day for me, I’m still marking the official start to summer with my Summer Craft Challenge!
This will be my 10th year creating posts throughout the school summer holidays showing a bit of creativity every day.
The challenge was born in the summer of 2016 when I was a stay-at-home Mum of 3 young men, aged 12, 8 and 4!! Back then, we lived in Gibraltar and experienced/endured 8-week-long school summer holidays – believe me, they were lengthy!
My first ever Summer Craft Challenge photo taken in Gibraltar on 9th July 2016
Each year I would feel completely exhausted and bogged down in the hamster wheel that is being a parent and my creativity took a back seat – there just wasn’t the time (or at least I thought there wasn’t). Then, in 2016 I read something somewhere that basically said it was up to me to find time to do something for myself (even if it was only for 5 mins) and surely it would have a positive impact on my mood. I tried it and it worked.
I made sure that I didn’t leave home without a small crafty project with me, crochet, embroidery, knitting or anything ‘creative’. That way, if I had a window of opportunity, no matter where it was, in a carpark, a waiting room, the beach, on a bench, I could do something creative and I felt like I’d achieved something that day.
By posting a photo each day, it kept me accountable and kept me going on days I felt I couldn’t be bothered.
That year, and every year since then (except in 2020 when we moved countries) I’ve been joined by fellow creativity seekers who have also shared their summer makes and that has given me such joy to see.
If you want to join in, I’d love you to! All you have to do is take a snap of your daily creativity (or weekly, or whatever you can manage) and post it on socials with the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2026
There’s no pressure to do it every day, some people just do a week or two when they are actually on holiday. Dip in and out at will, you will be most welcome!
Hello there, I hope this finds you doing ok. I’m a bit earlier with this monthly review than I managed last month, but not by much! I had a lovely month in June – although it didn’t produce many exciting pictures to share (other than a very impressive evening I spent at the Etihad Stadium in the company of Gary, Howard & Mark!).
The main reason for being so late to the game with this update is because of the Carry on Crafting Festival which happened just over a week ago – it was utterly amazing and I look forward to sharing more of it with you next month. In the meantime, you can catch the latest episode of Making Stitches Podcast to hear a flavour of Carry on Crafting (which was an absolute delight to edit last week!). Anyway, back to June..
Crochet Corner
My Carry on Crafting Squares so far…
I had a bit of a dabble with designing again in June. I am working on another little amigurumi character, but I want to wait to share her with you once she is finished – she is currently sitting on my sideboard without a head (poor love!). Away from amigurumi, I had the chance to give away a pair of tickets to Carry on Crafting festival on my social media channels, and that inspired me to make a few CoC inspired squares. I am hoping to make a complete Carry on Crafting blanket over the course of the summer, so will share more squares with you as they develop!
Also, a good friend of mine at work celebrated a big birthday last month and I simply had to knock up a mini-me for her. I was bought the Crochet Iconic Women book by Carla Mitrani by Eldest a few years ago and along with creating quite a few of those wonderful ladies (including HM Queen Elizabeth & Emmeline Pankhurst) I have used the pattern to create so many little people as gifts when they have hit milestones like big birthdays and other events. I can honestly say this is the most used crochet book I have! As a matter of fact, I am using it right now to create some more little characters – more on them next month!
A mini me gift for a lovely colleague
Take That!
Now to the biggest thing which happened to me in June…
Back in the 1990s, I met Take That very briefly when they visited the place I was working at (conveniently during my lunch hour) I got Gary and Mark’s autograph on my spiral bound notebook! I had never seen them play live in their original incarnation, but amazingly during our last summer living in Gibraltar (in the days before Covid) they came and did a few songs at the Gibraltar Music Festival which was literally a 10 minute walk from our home! It was at the very end of their big world tour. It was not a Take That concert in the conventional sense, but it was a thrill to see them at last as they sung about half a dozen songs between Rick Astley and a Mel C DJ set!
A couple of years ago, I was offered a last minute ticket to see Take That appearing in Manchester at the AO Arena – and when I say last minute – I mean literally hours before. It was an unexpected and very pleasant surprise. It was a truly amazing show – I’d heard they put on a good show but it blew my mind. When I heard that they were coming back to Manchester this summer, I joined the online queue for tickets when they went on sale and was amazed to be successful in getting a couple of tickets.
Take That in Gibraltar 2019Take That in Manchester 2024
My Mum said when I went the last time, that she wouldn’t mind seeing Take That and that she’d never actually been to a ‘gig’ before so I offered her the other ticket. She didn’t hesitate in saying yes! So, I took my Mum with me which was lovely.
Belinda CarlisleThe Script
The support acts were Belinda Carlisle (I was amazed how many songs she had and how many of them I remembered from my teens) and the Script (who we also saw at the Gibraltar Music Festival in years gone by). They both put on a great show with the crowd singing along.
Then the show began – wow! It truly was a show. It went on for hours, had a cast of hundreds of performers, acrobats, dancers, a tightrope walker, trapeze and the most amazing mechanical elephant which had a woman dangling upside down at the back to give the impression of a tail! I felt privileged to be able to witness it – it defies description.
I’m so glad I got to share it with Mum too. It was a perfect evening – apart from the journey home which including queuing in the world’s longest queue for a tram home which didn’t help Mum’s legs.
The longest tram queue in the world – this was less than half of it!!
Podcast News
In June, I released a couple of episodes of Making Stitches Podcast:
Episode 107 Connection, Confidence & Community with Melissa Santiago-Val – I really enjoyed my chat with Melissa who set up the charity helping people through sewing after a lockdown Covid mask making initiative grew into something lasting and very impactful.
Episode 108 Reconnecting with your imagination with textile artist, Murron Fraser – Murron is a textile artist based in my hometown of Manchester. She uses her work to encourage others to reconnect with their whimsical, childhood imaginations and is inspired by nature, folklore and storytelling.
Anyone for a Craft Challenge?
Back in the summer of 2016, as I approached the 10-week-long school summer holiday in Gibraltar with apprehension, wondering how I was going to manage the juggle of entertaining 3 young men for all that time and keep my sanity.
I decided to set myself a challenge. The plan was to do something creative every day during the long, hot school summer holiday. It worked – and the #SummerCraftChallenge was born. The simple act of giving myself permission to do something for me (even for a short while) really helped.
Every year, since then, (except for during 2020 when we relocated back the UK that summer holiday) I have kept up the challenge. This year, I am going to do the same.
My youngest is the only one still in school – GCSEs loom next year – but even as they got older and I found myself back in work rather being stuck at home, I kept the challenge going. His school breaks up for the summer today, so as of tomorrow, the #SummerCraftChallenge2026 will begin.
If you’d like to join in, please do! All you have to do is share a picture of what you have done that day (which can involve any sort of creativity) and use the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2026 – at the end of each week, I will share a blog post with a round-up of peoples’ summer creativity. There is no pressure to do something every day (I don’t always manage it myself to be honest), it’s just a gentle reminder to do something that makes you happy and takes you away from the stresses of the everyday grind.
It would be lovely if you could join me!
That’s all for this time, thanks for stopping by! Lindsay x
